www.stewardshiputah.org [www.stewardshiputah.org]
Hello John ,
Racing against the July 4th deadline imposed by President Trump, House Republicans cast their final vote last Thursday morning on House Resolution 1; aka the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Bill; aka the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’; or most recently ’The Act’, but we digress, passing one of the worst pieces of climate legislation. We fought hard though, and if we keep our eyes narrowly focused and our chins up, we can see a few wins in this bill.
Finding wins amidst this mess is hard. The overall gutting of important federal programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and EPA grants like the one that would have funded our Community Change Grant, allowing us to provide home weatherization to hundreds of homes on Navajo Nation, is disheartening. Additionally, almost the entirety of the Inflation Reduction Act is gutted, the biggest climate change legislation any country has ever passed, feels like a massive defeat. Despite this, we must take a moment and recognize where we were able to make a difference, because we did , stacked against incredible odds.
Since the framework of this bill was first introduced in February, we’ve traveled to DC three times, held meetings with our six congressional members and their staff 25 times, met with every members’ Utah-based office at least once, both in their offices and on the road, for a total of 35 meetings . And together, we made huge changes to this horrible bill.
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Senator Curtis meeting with our colleagues (left to right): Eliza Cowie, Stewardship Utah; TJ Ellerbeck, Stewardship Utah; Josh Craft; Utah Clean Energy; Curtis Yanito, Navajo Nation Council Delegate; Senator John Curtis.
With the help of hundreds of thousands of calls from advocates like you across the country, we successfully fought the proposed sale of more than 250 million acres of public lands, including 18.5 million acres in Utah alone. This public lands fight [[link removed]] will continue and we’re inspired by the commitment of our community, both here in Utah and across the country, to protect these treasured spaces.
Additionally, your outreach directly impacted actions our elected officials took to protect energy tax credits and the Community Change Grant (even if everyone else failed to listen). You made over 130 phone calls, and sent 845 emails to your legislators. Because of you, Senator Curtis, and Representatives Moore and Kennedy took action on their public commitment to preserve energy tax credits. Senator Curtis came out with his public support early, signing a letter dated April 9, 2025 [[link removed]] , alongside some of his senate colleagues, urging for the preservation of energy tax credits within the budget reconciliation process. Since then, Curtis defended the tax credits after multiple bill revisions, working with his colleagues to negotiate the energy tax credits back to a place that is at least possible for the energy sector to complete projects under. We saw a commitment from Senator Curtis, that while not new in spirit, is certainly new in practice, to fight for climate .
Similarly, Representatives Moore and Kennedy took a new step in fighting for our renewable energy community. In a June 25th letter [[link removed]] , alongside seven of their colleagues, Representatives Moore and Kennedy made a final appeal to their colleagues to preserve energy tax credits within this bill. While we are aware that in addition to this statement they worked with their colleagues behind the scenes, their public action shows their commitment to working on these issues in the future.
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Hundreds of people showing up for public lands at the Utah State Capitol this last winter.
You showed up. Now help us keep going.
The truth is, we wouldn’t have made it this far without you. Your calls, your emails, your presence— you made a real difference . Because of your action, 18.5 million acres of Utah public lands were not sold off. Because of you, members of our delegation stepped up to defend climate funding in ways they never have before.
But the fight is far from over.
In a few days (our self-deemed ‘federal policy gal’ is taking a much-deserved week off), we’ll start the fight up again. We’re still committed to providing home weatherization for our neighbors on the Navajo Nation. We’ve already started the work with our federal delegation and Utah’s Associations of Governments, signing on to a letter [[link removed]] advocating for Congress to preserve funding for the Low Income Home Energy Affordability Program (LIHEAP). LIHEAP offers us another path forward to provide home weatherization for the Navajo Nation and other communities across the country– and we need your support to keep that momentum going.
The results and the contents of this bill are not what we wanted. It is frustrating and deeply consequential to the overall health and well-being of our communities across the nation and here in Utah. Nevertheless, we will continue to find wins where we can and trudge forward in our fight to create a better future for Utah.
Will you make a donation today to help us keep fighting for climate, community, and a just future for Utah? Every gift helps us meet with lawmakers, advocate for funding, and organize people across the state to make their voices heard.
Donate now! [[link removed]]
Because the work doesn’t stop. And neither do we.
Onward,
www.stewardshiputah.org [www.stewardshiputah.org] The Stewardship Utah Team,
[email protected] [[email protected]]
www.stewardshiputah.org [[link removed]]
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Stewardship Utah
68 E 2700 S
South Salt Lake City, UT 84115
United States
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